‘You got here fast,’ DS Jones said.

‘Not quite fast enough,’ McNab said. ‘Do we know what happened?’

‘He tried to strangle her. She knifed him in the groin. Mr McCreadie came out and saw it happening. He got Karen out the car and called the ambulance. By the time they got here, Jackson was dead.’

‘Did they take Karen to hospital?’

‘She wouldn’t go. She’s in with Mr McCreadie and his housekeeper. SOCOs are working Jackson’s body and the car. You can take a look if you kit up or I can show you some photos.’

McNab chose the photos.

Ten minutes later he was approaching McCreadie’s front door, which was opened to him before he could knock.

‘DS McNab,’ Lucy greeted him, her voice a mix of strain and relief. ‘Karen’s with Mr McCreadie in the conservatory.’

Karen was lying on the sofa, a blanket over her. McCreadie had been sitting alongside but rose to greet McNab on entry.

God, McCreadie looks old, McNab thought, old and tired, but relieved too.

‘You thought she might come here,’ McCreadie said. ‘Thank God, you were right.’ He stood, making room for McNab to take a seat beside Karen.

She gave him a weak smile. ‘Detective McNab,’ she said. ‘How did you know I’d come back here?’

‘Call it a hunch,’ McNab said.

Her slender throat clearly showed the grip of Jackson’s hands. McNab wondered how she could have survived his obvious attempts to throttle her. Unless . . . she had weakened him already, by making the first move?

From the crime scene photos taken on arrival by DS Jones, the knife Karen had used lay on the floor of the passenger seat. It looked like a bigger version of the one she’d wielded on her own wrist in the scullery at Rowan Cottage. Longer and obviously sharp enough to do real damage. Why have a knife like that with you, if you didn’t intend harming yourself or others?

By the quantity of blood inside the vehicle, she’d caught the femoral artery, weakening Jackson enough to save her own life. But who had struck the first blow?

‘Is my Jack still in the car?’ Karen suddenly asked him. ‘He won’t like that, Detective. Not with all that blood. Jack never liked the sight of blood.’ She gave him a little smile and McNab could have sworn her eyes twinkled at him before she closed them.

Lucy arrived with a tray, breaking the moment.

‘Can I talk to you?’ McNab said to McCreadie. ‘In private?’

‘Let’s go into the sitting room.’ He led McNab through the hall and into a room that looked out onto the crime scene.

‘Of course, you want to know what happened?’

‘The truth of what happened.’ McNab emphasized the word ‘truth’.

‘I was in the conservatory, which as you know is at the back of the house, so the front was in darkness. After your call, I came to sit in here in the dark and watch, just in case. I’m ashamed to say I dozed off, albeit I think briefly. When I woke I saw there was a car that hadn’t been there before. It matched the description you gave me of Karen’s car.